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I often struggle with deciding how to name a class. Not so much because the class's purpose is unclear, but because of names like xxx***Controller***, xxx***Manager***, xxx***Info***, xxx***Helper***, xxx***Util*** etc that I see everywhere.
If I have a class that uploads some stuff over HTTP, I tend to name it HttpUploader or something on those lines. I have seen many instances where a similar class being named HttpUploadManager, HttpTransmissionController, HttpUploadHelper and so on.
I am sort of confused as to when to use Controller, Manager, Info etc. Is there any article or book that can help me become a better namer of classes?
PS: Also, a name like HttpSender sounds pretty anemic when compared to HttpTransmissionController or HttpDispatchManager :P
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Class names should be nouns, in mixed case with the first letter of each internal word capitalized. Try to keep your class names simple and descriptive. Use whole words-avoid acronyms and abbreviations (unless the abbreviation is much more widely used than the long form, such as URL or HTML).
Noun or Noun PhrasesA name must begin with a letter that could be followed by a sequence of letters, digits (0 - 9) or underscore. The first character in an identifier cannot be a digit. It must not contain any embedded space or symbol such as? - + ! @ # % ^ & * ( ) [ ] { } . ; : " ' / and \.
Always favor lowercase, for elements, for attributes and their values, for classes and ids. Multi-word names for classes and ids should either 1., concatenate the words in lowercase without any in-between character, or 2., separate each word with a "-" (not "_") and maintain lowercasing throughout.
Naming is hard, so don't worry that you struggle, because we all do. And trust me, it never gets any easier!
Personally with the whole Controller/Manager/Helper/Util/Whatever suffix thing I tend to use the rule that if it's a convention (e.g. for an ASP.NET MVC it's convention that the controller class name ends in "Controller") then use the suffix, otherwise try like hell to avoid it. I'd much rather have a class called HttpUploader than HttpUploadManager.
The most important thing about naming, is that the class should do what it says. If it is a class that uploads something using HTTP then HttpUploader describes it exactly. Using a fancy name like HttpUploadManager doesn't tell me what it does. Does it upload the thing itself? Does it manage the upload of multiple things? I like to keep things as simple as possible, while describing the purpose of the class/method/whatever.
A good guideline I find is that if you're really struggling to name something, like you've spend ages thinking and you still can't distill what it does into a reasonable name, then you probably need to refactor whatever you're trying to name into smaller, more specific components.
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